


That's Love

by nirejseki



Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Alpha Len, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Disapproving Family, M/M, Omega Barry, Platonic Soulmates, beta Mick, vampire
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-26
Updated: 2016-07-26
Packaged: 2018-07-26 23:31:26
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,905
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7594639
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nirejseki/pseuds/nirejseki
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>As long as they count each one as a one-night stand, that means they’re not dating, right? </p><p> </p><p>Response to tumblr prompt: Flashwave with Omega!Barry defending Beta!Mick?</p>
            </blockquote>





	That's Love

When Barry and Mick hook up for the first time, they’re both expecting it to be a one-night sort of deal. Even aside from the whole superhero-supervillain/badge-criminal vibe they’ve got going on – which makes the sex absolutely mind-blowingly excellent but would indicate a fundamental disconnect that should discourage either of them from thinking of doing it again – they’re not technically compatible. Omegas like Barry, rare as they are, are basically Alpha catnip; Betas like Mick tend to hook up with other Betas (being the majority of the population and all) or with Alphas. 

Hell, Barry confesses after the sixth time they hook up (as long as they count each one as a one-night stand, that means they’re not dating, right?) that he actually thought Mick and _Len_ were together, which makes Mick fall off the bed laughing.

“It’s not that funny,” Barry sulks, tossing a pillow at Mick’s head. 

“It really, really is,” Mick says sincerely, sidling up the bed and looming over a very receptive Barry. “People keep thinking it, I don’t know why.”

“Maybe it’s because you keep calling each other partner the way most people would say husband?” Barry says, leaning up for a kiss that Mick is more than happy to give him.

Mick hums happily. “Oh, don’t get me wrong,” he says, kissing his way down Barry’s neck. “We’re obviously soulmates. We just don’t fuck, s’all. Not our speed.”

“Well, that’s clearly to _my_ benefit,” Barry says with a gasp as Mick gets to that spot on his collarbone that makes his toes curl.

The funny part of it is – and they don’t realize this until time number thirteen, not that anyone’s counting (except maybe Len because he’s clearly some sort of numbers-obsessed vampire) – it’s the lack of compatibility that makes it so easy to get away with shit like what they’re doing.

Which, for the record, they both know is a bad idea, but – as mentioned before – the sex is _really_ mind-blowing. Like, wow. 

But Barry blows into the Rogues’ safehouse, costume on and all, laughing hysterically as papers and napkins fly everywhere into the air. Len – who has already learned to pin down all of his important stuff with his ever-growing collection of paperweights, which Mick gets him to keep him happy – looks up from where he’s reading his book while hanging upside-down from the couch (he says it helps him focus – he’s _such_ a vampire) and Mick up from where he’s puttering around waiting for the oven timer to go off. 

“You won’t believe this,” Barry says, beaming like an idiot. “They think I’m sleeping with _Len_.”

“Jesus fuck no why?” Len says, aghast. 

Mick pokes at Len’s side with his bare toes. “Hey, that’s my booty call you’re ‘Jesus fuck no why’ing about.”

“Barry reminds me of my _sister_ ,” Len says, making a face. “Bright and perky and kinda toxic sometimes. You’re cute and all, Barry, but…no. Just _no_.”

Barry snickers. “No insult taken,” he assures Len. “But seriously. They think I’m sneaking off to screw _Len_ , just because he’s an Alpha.”

Mick shakes his head. “But Len’s _Len_ ,” he says, waving his hands around. Len is basically as far away from an Alpha stereotype as you get – sure, he can act all cocky and arrogant and in-your-face and shit in public, but that’s just one of his masks. Anyone who gets to know Len for more than five minutes will be able to dig past the surface to find the soul of a fussy mother hen inside. 

“You should stay for dinner,” Len says, sure enough, eyeing Barry. “You’re too skinny again.”

The oven timer goes off and Barry’s eyes light up. “Mick’s cooking?” he says hopefully.

“Of course,” Mick grumbles. “You think I let _Len_ touch the oven after The Last Time?”

“One day I’m going to get you to tell me why you always capitalize those letters when you say them,” Barry says. “And don’t lie – I can _hear_ you doing it.”

“Mick’s still traumatized,” Len says with a smirk. “Speaking of, Barry, you sticking around this evening? Should I make myself scarce?”

Mick arches an eyebrow and puts his bare foot square in the center of Len’s chest, pressing down until Len squeaks. “I made you dinner,” he says sternly, “and you are going to stay and _eat it_. Barry’s not the only one who’s too skinny.”

Barry laughs. “Well, if there’s dinner _ready_ ,” he says, “I guess I don’t have any other evening plans.”

That’s time number fourteen, for those keeping count ( _Len_ ). 

At some point, though, between Barry coming by for dinner because Mick always makes enough to feed an army even if Len eats like a fucking bird (except when it’s steak served bloody and rare, because Len _is a vampire_ , Mick cannot emphasize this enough) and them meeting up for a quickie while running errands and ending up going grocery shopping together, which was a legitimately hilarious experience between Barry’s appetite and Mick’s tendency to rhapsodize about potential meals every time he sees a particularly fine cut of meat, it stops being one-night stands and starts being something more regular.

The sex is still fan-fucking-tastic, though.

Len is _still_ giggling about Mick accidentally making that pun. In retaliation, Mick threatens to put up a cross in their living room and Len hisses viciously at him (either vampirism or Judaism, but honestly, who can tell with Len?)

They don’t actually admit that they’re _dating_ until they find themselves sitting in a crummy old movie theater in the bad side of town, sharing a thing of popcorn and bitching because no one _else_ wanted to go see Raiders of the Lost Ark for the twenty-seventh time (Len has threatened to quote the entire thing at Mick if he makes him go again, and knowing Len’s memory, Mick’s worried he might be able to, and Lisa just laughed in Mick’s face). They sort of stumble around the topic, neither one of them looking at the other, and they settled on “yeah, maybe ‘dating’ is the right word” right before the opening credits start rolling which _thank god_ cuts off all the awkwardness because it ain’t a John Williams movie unless you obnoxiously sing along to the intro tune, right?

Mick and Barry make a surprisingly good chorus. They’re both off-key as hell - Barry's got a great voice but no one does well with a mouth full of popcorn - but they’re off-key in the _same way_. (Len says that’s the definition of love, but he’s full of crap and also it’s way too early in this relationship to even think about that sort of stuff.)

After that, things get both easier and harder.

It’s easier to hook up now that Barry can just tell his friends he’s off to see his boyfriend, and now Mick can actually invite him to do all the stupid things he’d wanted to invite Barry to before the decision was made but felt that it would be weird to ask your fuckbuddy (fuck-enemy? fuck-frenemy?) to do, like go out to the local powwow to watch the dragon boat races while Len hovers around the frybread stand casting it longing looks like a fucking vampire out of a gothic romance, except one that lives off of carbs and gluten and oil.

(Mick asks Len once if he thinks of himself as more of an ‘Interview with the Vampire’ type or more of a ‘Twilight’ type and the fucker _bites_ him. What type of response is that?!)

It’s harder, though, because Mick’s always been aggressive and territorial for a Beta, much more so than even Len is, and while it always drove him nuts that fucking Alphas would swagger right up to the bar and hit on Barry like Mick’s not even there, at least before he could tell himself that he had no right to get in their faces about it because Barry wasn’t his in any way that mattered.

Well, now it matters.

Not that Mick _needs_ to get in their faces, honestly; one of the advantages of having a lover as quick as Barry is that Barry usually gets there first. Mick’s pretty sure the ability to throw it in someone’s face is the only reason Barry even _orders_ a drink anymore. 

Mick still throws down with them on days when Barry’s not there, though, and it’s only about 50% because bar fights are his favorite form of exercise.

(That’s love, Len says, snickering at him as he drags Mick curtain shopping for black-out curtains for his room – he says it’s because Barry always lets in the light when he sneaks in after an all-night superhero shift, but Mick’s thinking vampire-related thoughts again.)

Mick doesn’t know the number of dates they’ve been on – real dates, not just hook-ups, and though he knows Len will know, he’s not really interested in asking – when Barry’s friends find out about it. Them.

Fucking Oliver Queen. Everyone in Central was happy to just let them be, but no, the Starling City Vigilante can’t keep his fucking nose out of anyone’s business and when he hears the rumors circling around he goes after Len with a vengeance and a quiver full of extremely pointy arrows. 

And yes, Len, he goes after _Len_ , of course _Len_ , because an Alpha like Queen would never think about Barry hooking up with someone other than another Alpha. Queen doesn’t even _want_ Barry, but he thinks of him as his own to order around anyway, because he’s fucking full of Alpha bullshit.

Mick’s not about to let his best friend get murdered for _his_ actions – not again, anyway – and he goes up against Queen with his gun and his fists and anything else he’s got.

Queen’s got him pinned down, one arrow already buried in Mick’s jacket, just having grazed his side, and the fucker drawing another as Mick reaches to try to grab his gun back, when there’s a goddamn wave of sound, loud as a jet plane, and there’s Barry, face pale with rage like Mick’s never seen him, and he _throws_ Queen across the room, appearing behind Queen and snatching away his quiver before gravity even finishes doing its job on the vigilante. 

“Get the _hell_ away from my boyfriend,” Barry snarls, lips curled back and teeth bared.

Queen stops where he is, halfway out of the crouch he caught himself in, hands already reaching for something in his coat pocket, and says, “Wait, _he’s_ your boyfriend?”

“I thought you were with Cold?” Ramon says from where he’s been cowering in the corner, holding his now bright red hands over Len’s shoulder in an attempt to keep the blood on the inside where it should be.

“I am _not_ with Cold and even if I was, your behavior is _totally unacceptable_ , Oliver! What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

Queen’s face is set in harsh, stubborn lines. “They’re criminals – ”

“Get the hell out of my city this instant or by god I will run you back to Starling myself,” Barry snaps. “And you’re _not going to like it_.”

Barry’s taken Mick on a few quick-speed rides with clothing that Mick doesn’t care too deeply about. _Mick_ likes it, but he can see (theoretically) why other people might not; not everyone likes the burn.

It takes a bit more than that, but Queen departs, and without any freezer burn from Len even once Len gets patched up. What’s left of Queen Consolidated or Oliver Queen’s personal holdings _does_ get hit relentlessly by a series of thefts over the next few months, up to and including his little superhero hideout, and Barry fails to hide his giggles as Len vengefully pins the Green Arrow suit he’s obtained up on the wall with a dartboard target right in the middle. Mick would complain, but he’s got nothing against creative wall art.

(Mick also suspects that Queen is much more pissed off by Len setting Lisa on the job of ‘kidnapping’ Thea, because those two hit it off like a _house on fire_ and then Thea introduce Lisa to Felicity, Laurel, and Sara already knows her, of course, and Mick’s not sure what’s going on over there, but the word orgy’s been tossed around a few times. Len’s smirk when he hears about it makes it clear that between Queen and Len, Queen may be a master tactician but no one – _no one_ – beats Leonard Snart for strategy.)

Unfortunately, after the Queen fiasco, their relationship is rather out in the open, and not everyone’s happy about it.

 _Most_ people aren’t happy about it, actually.

Mick’s bitter, but unsurprised, that it’s one thing for Barry to be possibly dating Captain Cold – a dashing, attractive Alpha with more than a hint of bad boy, the stuff that a million redemption-narrative romance novel plots are made of – and another thing entirely for Barry to be dating _Mick_ , who’s not only a criminal and a supervillain and a pyromaniac, but a Beta to boot.

The reaction tends to split between the ones who are sympathetic but not understanding – Mick is deeply unimpressed with Iris’ “But _why_ do you like him?” questions, as if attraction could be explained and measured out like that – and the ones who just pretend that Mick doesn’t exist and thus Barry’s back on the market again, with Joe West being the big offender here. He’s quite _so_ offensive about it that Mick has to go bang on Len’s door for another round of ‘why lighting your boyfriend’s psuedo-father’s house on fire is a bad thing to do’ talk, although Barry catches the tail end of one of those talks and says grimly, “If he doesn’t stop trying to set me up with eligible Alphas who will be able to ‘fix’ me, I might _let you_ ” which Mick just melts over.

(That’s love, Len says with mock disgust, shaking his head and making himself some sort of dark red smoothie with what Mick sincerely hopes is pomegranate juice.)

Barry, never one to back down from a fight, gets in his friends’ faces about it, but it wears on him, and it wears on Mick, too. They end up spending their down time together, curled up on the couch, saying nothing. Just unwinding from the stress of the day.

(The sex continues to be phenomenal. Like, it’s honestly ridiculous; after one particularly memorable session, Barry and Mick look at each other with mutual acknowledgment that the sex they are having is _unrealistically_ good, but hey, they’re not going to complain.)

Mick happens to be at STAR Labs, offering his and Len’s help with a particularly nasty meta threat (tall, pale, capable of mesmerizing people, and some serious serial killer tendencies – possibly another vampire? Mick’s recruited Ramon to keep a close eye on Len just in case, mostly because Ramon’s the only other person who believes him even a little bit), when Joe West goes that little step too far.

Mick doesn’t even hear what Joe says or what exactly the statement was that broke the camel’s back, but Barry’s face has gone that familiar shade of rage-pale again and he’s got a finger in Joe’s chest and is snarling something too low for Mick to hear from across the room. Joe’s eyes are wide, though, and the people who are standing nearby have their eyebrows arched up in mixed surprise and respect. 

Mick’s barely stirred out of his chair when Barry finishes his little rant, turning on his heel and marching over to Mick to pull him into a deep kiss. A _claiming_ sort of kiss, the type you read about in books but usually with Alphas in the driver’s seat. Even for Mick, it’s easy to forget that he and Barry are the same height, but with the addition of the several layers of friction-blockers and insole cushions in Barry’s Flash boots, Barry’s got the advantage now and he presses it mercilessly, tilting Mick’s head back, one hand on the back of his head, the other stationed firmly on Mick’s hip so that Mick has no choice but to practically swoon in Barry’s arms. 

Len whistles loudly, starting to clap, and almost despite themselves a couple of the other people in the room do, too, Ramon and Snow chief among them. (Mick and Snow are never going to get on great, not after how they met, but Mick’s agreed to let her take regular blood tests to determine if his medication’s gone off again and she liked his reaction after the Queen incident enough to give him the benefit of a doubt). Joe West looks like he’s bitten into a lemon, but Iris West is wolf-whistling like a _pro_ before turning and giving Len an honest-to-god fist-bump, and honestly Mick thinks that’ll be good enough for Barry.

(That’s love, Len says smugly, leaning back in his crappy STAR labs chair and gesturing towards where Mick and Barry are standing. For once, neither Mick nor Barry tell him to shut up and just smile at each other instead.)

A week later they go up against the self-dubbed Mirror Master – clearly Cisco’s villainous name-coining soulmate – and get stuck in the mirror world, all except for Len who appears to be immune because he _doesn’t appear in mirrors_. Barry and Ramon are speechless and spluttering about it. Mick’s not sure why. 

He _told_ them Len was a vampire.


End file.
